Château-Richer is a small town situated in the
Capitale-Nationale
Capitale-Nationale (; en, National Capital region) is one of the 17 administrative regions of Quebec. It is anchored by the provincial capital, Quebec City, and is largely coextensive with that city's metropolitan area. It has a land area of 18,7 ...
region of
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...
, Canada. Located on the north shore of the
Saint Lawrence River
The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...
east of
Quebec City
Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...
, Château-Richer is the seat for the
Côte-de-Beaupré Regional County Municipality.
The first rural parish in
New France
New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to King ...
was established there in 1678 and many of the oldest families in Quebec first settled there. Even today, a fairly large segment of the town's population can be traced back to those pioneering families.
The town stretches for several miles alongside
Route 138. This road, which was originally known as the King's Road (''
Chemin du Roy'', or ''Chemin royal''), to be later renamed ''Avenue royale'', is among the first ones to be built in
North America.
History
In 1626,
Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain (; Fichier OrigineFor a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December 1635) was a Fr ...
established in Château-Richer the first farm in the Saint Lawrence valley, to feed the people of Quebec city.
Jean Bourdon's map of 1641 is the earliest source that mentions the name "Chateau Richer", referring only to the cape or headland on which stands the present church. But the origin of this name remains uncertain. In 1646,
Olivier Letardif, Lord and Chief Prosecutor, granted 20 concessions to the inhabitants of Château-Richer so that they could officially establish themselves properly.
In 1678, the local parish was formed, named La Visitation-de-Notre-Dame. On March 15, 1753, Château-Richer became very first organized village in New France. In 1832, the post office opened. In 1845, the municipality was first established but abolished in 1847. It was reestablished in 1855 when it was incorporated as a
parish municipality
A parish is an administrative division used by several countries. To distinguish it from an ''ecclesiastical parish'', the term ''civil parish'' is used in some jurisdictions, as noted below.
The table below lists countries which use this admini ...
.
Château-Richer was the county town of defunct Montmorency County.
Montmorency – Quebec History
/ref>
Louis-Théodore Besserer, a prominent businessman of Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
, was born in Château-Richer.
In 1968, it changed its status and became Ville de Château-Richer with the status of a town.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population
The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...
conducted by Statistics Canada, Château-Richer had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
List of mayors
Successive mayors of Château-Richer:
See also
* Chenal de l'Île d'Orléans
* Saint-Adolphe River North-East
* Rivière du Petit Pré
* Cazeau River
* Rivière du Sault à la Puce
The rivière du Sault à la Puce flows south, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence river, in the municipality of Château-Richer, in the La Côte-de-Beaupré Regional County Municipality in the administrative region of Capitale-Nationale, in ...
* Rivière aux Chiens (Côte-de-Beaupré)
* Rivière la Retenue
* Centre d'Interprétation de la Côte-de-Beaupré
Aux Trois Couvents, formerly known as the Centre d'interprétation de la Côte-de-Beaupré (CICB), located in Château-Richer, is recognized as a museum of La Côte-de-Beaupré Regional County Municipality, Quebec, La Côte-de-Beaupré by the regio ...
* List of cities in Quebec
This is the list of municipalities that have the Quebec municipality type of city (''ville'', code=V), an administrative division defined by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Regions and Land Occupancy.
Note that although the terms "city" and ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chateau-Richer
Cities and towns in Quebec
Incorporated places in Capitale-Nationale